Prodigal Son
by SkitsMix
Summary: What if Leo had come back from the Ancient One in Japan to find out that his brothers and his father HADN'T escaped Karai's assault?


Leo got to the Lair, and had to face his very worst fears. His home destroyed, his family lying dead inside. Murdered. Numb with shock, he slowly retrieved their bodies one by one to lay them out in the main room. First Splinter, from the ruins of his room in the dojo. Don was next, then Raph, and Leo's mind remained blissfully blank, stifled by a cloud of denial and disbelief and horror, unwilling - _unable_ - to acknowledge or comprehend the enormity of the situation.

Finally he reached Mikey, and went to lift him up, then paused as he realised his brother wasn't alone. Beside him, huddled against his arm, was a small, orange-furred body, limp and unmoving, still with blood on the claws and teeth and white-tipped paws. Klunk had tried to help, tried to defend his turtle family, but in the end even nine lives hadn't been enough.

Leo carefully moved Mikey to lie beside the rest of his family, hesitated, then went back to retrieve Klunk as well. But the feeling of that small, fragile body in his hands was the last straw, and Leo could no longer deny the truth, could no longer remain numb and unfeeling and cocooned in a haze of _this can't be happening, this can't be real_. He dropped to his knees beside his family as his grief overwhelmed him and _sobbed_, great, heaving, broken sobs, even as he held Klunk's furry little body still cradled protectively against his plastron.

* * *

It was almost ridiculously easy for Leo to break into the tall building that was the Foot's headquarters and make his way into Karai's sanctuary right at the top. Even easier to face her in combat, ignore her words, ignore the sudden fear in her eyes as she realised just what her dishonourable actions had unleashed, and just how little mercy she could expect.

Her lifeless body hit the floor moments after her head, and that was in turn followed by the head of the statue of Saki. That done, Leo turned without a word and stalked out of the room. He still had work to do.

* * *

It wasn't quite as easy to get to the tower's armoury, and Leo had to fight through several small groups of Foot ninja to get there, earning a few wounds of his own in the process. But he was fast enough, deadly enough, that the alarm was never raised throughout the whole building.

When he finally reached the armoury, he swiftly dealt with the few Foot technicians within it, then set about his task. He was no technological genius, not like Donnie, but he'd picked up enough over the past few years to accomplish his goal.

Soon, explosives from the Foots' various weapons were piled along the walls and around load-bearing pillars, and any power source that _could_ overload was set to do so.

It was tempting, _so tempting_, to just throw a grenade into the largest pile of explosives and then follow it in. But a tiny spark of something - he didn't know what exactly, but _something -_ stayed that impulse. Instead, he carefully set the timer on one of the explosives, placed it where it would light up everything else in the room in a chain of devastating explosions, and then turned and left.

Stealth was no longer important now, only speed, and Leo ran through the corridors, carving his way through anything that hindered his progress. There was a moment where he thought his memory had failed him and that he'd meet his end inside the hated building after all, but then he turned a corner and saw an open door.

And beyond that, a window to the outside world.

The fact that there were also several startled Foot between his goal and himself wasn't even really relevant. Especially when he heard, distantly, the first muffled explosions go off, felt the vibrating rumble through the floor. He increased his pace and charged, his blood-stained swords clearing the way.

He didn't even slow down as he crossed the room, and just shielded his head with his arms as he crashed through the window and fell out into open space.

* * *

Afterwards, Leo retreated to the only safe place he still had. Wounded, bleeding, but still alive.

At least, his body was. When April saw him standing exhausted in her doorway and looked into his empty white eyes, she wasn't so sure about the rest of him. She'd seen the news reports of the destruction of Saki's tower.

But she did what she could to tend his wounds, and tried not to be disturbed by Leo's silence and unresisting compliance. Tried not to think about the events that had driven Leo to this point.

Tried not to think about the raw pit of grief in her gut at the loss of Splinter, Raph, Don, and Mikey.

Tried not to think that maybe she'd lost Leo as well.


End file.
